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Ardeen Cheshire Home
Ardeen Cheshire Home
Start date: Jan 1, 2015,
End date: Jul 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
Cheshire Ireland is a not-for-Profit organisation providing support services for adults with physical disabilities and neurological conditions. Ardeen Cheshire Home is a residential service that operated 24 hours a day,, 365 days a year. There are 21 residents ranging from 37 to 75. We have a full-time staff of 60 people , and a Community Employment Scheme with 20 participants. We also have up to 8 volunteers at any one time for 12 months, hosting volunteers from all over Europe and further afield.
Ardeen Cheshire Home is a place of physical support for people with disabilities to live good lives, of their own choosing - where residents can acquire a sense of belonging and ownership of their service, by contributing in any way within their capabilities to its functioning and development. It is a place to support others and feel included, and to develop independence, foster interests and promote a quality of life.
EVS Volunteers' service centres around supporting the social aspects of service users lives in Ardeen. Voluneers assist our residents to interact and integrate in local community life, and support them in their activities of daily living. They accompany residents on outings such as the cinema, bowling, meals out, concerts, Irish music nights, visits to family, and short holidays with trained staff. They are actively involved in supporting service users to develop life skills that they might need to ease their transition into life in the community, or in assisting them to contribute to society, thereby playing an equally active role in society during their voluntary service. Volunteers are also actively encouraged to bring their own skills to this area, trying out new ideas all the time. We encourage volunteers to develop projects with a lasting legacy, something that they will be uniquely remembered for, that adds value to the life/lives of service users, but also that they too have a lasting legacy for themselves in how their individual input into their project has impacted on them.
We have frequent meetings, formal and informal, where ideas, projects and duties are discussed. In previous projects we have been asked to fundraise for the Riding for the Disabled Association, they heard about our fundraising achievements for the Shillelagh People's Property. EVS volunteers played a huge role in promoting and organising the event with the residents and staff members of Ardeen Cheshire Home, and these are EVS activities that are identified and worked towards as opportunities for them organically emerge in every project.
We provide the opportunity for EVS volunteers to receive training that is relevant to their project, which enhances their skills and gives them insight into the disability sector in Ireland. These are the skills which the volunteers can take away with them after their service is finished, providing them with an opportunity to look at career options and their employability in the Sector. Many of our EVS volunteers have taken the decision after leaving the project this year to study within the Healthcare and Disability sectors.